Animals In Captivity Essay

1859 words - 8 pages

I confess, I am guilty. I am guilty of supporting these disgraceful prisons where the ones held captive are, at times, abducted from there homes and forced to entertain us. I did not support them because I wanted to or thought it to be right, but because I was ignorant and did not know the truth. In fact, at one point in our lives we are all guilty of it. Looks can be deceiving. At first glance we would never think these places to be horrible, but in all reality they are. I am talking about zoos, aquariums, marine parks and circuses. All of these places are just another form of prisons. The only difference between this prison and other prisons is that the prisoners did nothing to deserve to ...view middle of the document...

In 2008, the San Francisco Gate reported, “Two victims of a lethal Christmas Day tiger attack were harassing the big cats at the San Francisco Zoo shortly before a 350-pound feline escaped its enclosure and mauled them,” (SFGate). Besides these two who were just injured, there were two deaths on the scene, a visitor and the Siberian tiger who was shot to death by the police. This shows that we are never truly safe around these animals. The only answer, if we continue to keep these animals in captivity, is ultimately lock them up with no
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openings. It would not be surprising if they actually did. As a result of the Siberian tiger case, the San Francisco Zoo extended their wall to 19 ft, 2.6 ft higher than the accepted standard height. This aggravates the animal, in which they become frustrated making the risk of attack even higher. How would you like it if you were kept locked away the rest of your life, waking up each morning to a giant wall? Not so great.
Lastly, the worst zoos could possibly do to there animals, is what happens when the cute babies grow up and become useless. Zoos do not have the room or money to expand, therefore the only logical solution to make more room is to sell off the elder animals. After all, the baby animals are more of an attraction right? More people equals more money, zoos could care less what happens to the older animals they dispose of. Another animal rights campaign states, “When they grow older, and therefore less attractive to patrons, they will often be sold or killed ... deer, tigers, and lions, are sometimes sold to game farms and ranches where hunters pay to kill them,” (LCA). This is only one example of what happens to animals after the zoo. Another story, Twiggs and Jeffrey who are two giraffes who were born at the Cape May County Zoo and sold into a traveling circus, brings us to our next topic.
Circuses are the worst of the worst, a zoo is nothing compared to this style of living. At least in zoos the animals have room to walk around and even run, but in a traveling circus they do not. A wild life campaign reveals, “Elephants, tigers, lions, other big cats, bears, primates, exotic reptiles, and other animals are still subjected to cramped, unnatural living conditions; travel for most of the year; cruel training methods that use violence, fear, and intimidation,” (Born Free USA). The two most popular circus organizations, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus have repeatedly been accused of abusing and cruelly mistreating their animals. A site called Ringling Beats Animals has exposed footage of trainers repeatedly hitting elephants on their head, ears, trunk ect with bullhooks, when the elephants are clearly doing nothing wrong. Elephants such as Tonka, are driven mad and traumatized. Signs of this trauma are revealed by footage, which shows elephants repeatedly swaying their heads back and forth while bobbing their heads.. These animals are intelligent beings and do become mentally...

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